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Tuesday, 6 December 2016

Day Six: Tuesday 6 December

Snow, seal blubber and fossils

Today looked as if it
was going to be a quiet day because it started to snow and the forecast was for
worse weather to come, but it has been really busy and full of fascinating
stuff, from smelly seal blubber to fossils.

This morning I had a
trip to Discovery Hut organised with Paul, the science tech, as driver and
guide. Discovery Hut is the hut from Scott’s first expedition, and it’s tucked
away in a small bay only a few hundred metres from the American base at
McMurdo.

We took the main road
from Scott Base to McMurdo (only 5-10 mins drive away) and drove through a
muted black-and white world, so different from yesterday’s blue sky and
sunshine.

I’m glad to have been able to experience such contrasting weather
conditions, especially for visiting the hut where Scott’s team lived through much
worse weather. In fact the hut was prefabricated in Australia and
based on an Australian bungalow with a wide verandah, and it proved so cold
that the men ate and worked there but slept on board their ship anchored nearby.

Just inside the front door was a pile of seal blubber leaking ooze, and the whole hut smelt of it - and lying outside the front door was this - a very dead, mummified seal.

I was lucky
enough to have ten minutes or more inside the hut on my own, just soaking up
the atmosphere. These huts are so evocative of history that you almost expect
to hear voices or catch glimpses of the men at work.

Remains of the last dinner cooked here, still in the frypan

Afterwards we had a
drive around McMurdo, which makes you see Scott Base in a whole new light. McMurdo
is so much bigger, housing over a thousand people, and it has big accommodation
blocks, a fire station, hospital, helicopter pads, warehouses, a gym, a chapel,a
coffee house/wine bar and huge computer labs, and a more industrial,
mining-town feel.Having said that, the
people we did meet in the labs and the canteen were all really friendly. Scott
Base has an American night every Thursday and apparently the Americans from
McMurdo love coming here for dinner.

Whenever you leave
Scott Base, even if just for a walk, you have to sign out, say which vehicle
you are taking (if driving) and what time you expect to be back. At least one
member of your party has to take a radio and spare battery, and you have to
call in to the comms team at regular intervals with updates. We signed out from
11 to 12.30pm, but were out longer than planned as there was so much to see, so
we called back and asked comms to extend our return time to 2pm. We also asked
if they could arrange to put aside two lunches for us and lovely Ruby (who was
on our Cape Evans trip yesterday) sorted that for us too.

There was more to come
– I haven’t even got to the fossils yet! The day wasn’t over!

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About Me

I am a New Zealand writer of fiction and non-fiction with a special interest in history. I belong to the Writers in Schools programme, talk at seminars and book evenings, run creative writing workshops, do online tutoring for NZ Writers College and write a blog on Children's war books. I was lucky enough to go to Gallipoli for Anzac Day 2014 with the Gallipoli Volunteers. In 2016, I'm equally lucky to be going to Antarctica with Antarctica NZ. Visit my author website.